Subra Suresh

Subra Suresh is the Dean of the School of Engineering and the Ford Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds joint faculty appointments in Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biological Engineering, and Health Sciences and Technology at M.I.T. From January 2000 to January 2006, he served as Head of M.I.T.’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He began his tenure as Dean of Engineering in July 2007.

Suresh received his Bachelor of Technology degree in first class with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1977; his M.S. from Iowa State University in 1979; and his Sc.D. from M.I.T. in 1981. He also holds an honorary doctorate degree in engineering from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology.

Suresh's current research focuses on experimental and computational studies of the mechanical responses of single biological cells and molecules and their implications for human health and diseases. His prior and ongoing work has also led to seminal contributions in the area of nano- and micro-scale mechanical properties of engineered materials.

He is the author of over 210 research articles in international journals, co-editor of five books, and co-inventor on fourteen U.S. and international patents. More than 100 students, post-doctoral associates, and research scientists trained in his group occupy prominent positions in academe, industry, and government throughout the world. He has authored or co-authored three books: Fatigue of Materials, Fundamentals of Functionally Graded Materials, and Thin Film Materials.

Suresh has been elected to a number of major science and engineering academies including: U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2002); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004); Indian National Academy of Engineering (2004, foreign member); Academy of Sciences of the Developing World, TWAS, Trieste, Italy (2005); Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2005, Honorary Fellow); the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences (2007, Honorary Member); and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2007; member).

He has been elected a fellow or honorary fellow by all major materials societies in the U.S.A. and India, including: the American Society for Materials International (ASM); The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS); the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the American Ceramic Society (ACerS); the Indian Institute of Metals; and the Materials Research Society of India.

He is the recipient of the 2007 European Materials Medal, the highest honor conferred by the Federation of European Materials Societies, and the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal. In its March 2006 issue, M.I.T.'s Technology Review magazine selected Prof. Suresh's work on nanobiomechanics as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2006 that "will have a significant impact on business, medicine or culture."

Suresh's other major awards and honors include: the Sauveur Achievement Award of the American Society for Materials International (2004); the Gordon Moore Distinguished Scholarship at California Institute of Technology (2004); the Brahm Prakash Professorship at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2004); the Senior Humboldt Research Prize from the Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2004); selection by the Institute for Scientific Information as a highly cited researcher in materials science (2003); the Distinguished Materials Scientist/Engineer Award from TMS (2001); the Clark B. Millikan Visiting Professorship at Caltech (1999), the TFR Swedish National Chair in Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (1997-98); the Distinguished Alumnus Award (1997) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; the Ross Coffin Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society (1992) for the best paper published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society; two Allied Signal Foundation Research Awards (1989, 1990); the Technical Analysis Corporation Teacher Award at Brown University "for an inspiring faculty member in the Division of Engineering" (1989); the Ford Foundation Research Award (1986-87); the Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985-90) from the National Science Foundation and the White House; the Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal (1985) from TMS; the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal (1983) from TMS; the Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award (1982) from the U.S. Department of Energy; the Premium for Academic Excellence Award (1977-79) from Iowa State University; and the National Merit Scholarship from the Government of India (1971-77).